


Dark Horse

by Lys ap Adin (lysapadin)



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Futurefic, M/M, Post-Series, Romance, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-31
Updated: 2009-01-31
Packaged: 2017-10-02 05:12:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lysapadin/pseuds/Lys%20ap%20Adin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day Saeki looks around and asks himself when Yuuta grew up and got so hot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark Horse

**Author's Note:**

> Future-fic, set four years after canon. Smut. I've chosen to stick with the early definition of muga Konomi gave us, rather than the redefinition he did in the Nationals arc. St. Christopher borrowed from [](http://branchandroot.insanejournal.com/profile)[**branchandroot**](http://branchandroot.insanejournal.com/).

It all started because Shuusuke said, "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?" and Koujirou replied, "Nothing, why?"

"The high school regional finals are tomorrow. Yuuta's playing." Shuusuke's smile was maybe one part rueful to two parts proud. "Wanna come keep me company?"

Koujirou weighed his options: go watch high school tennis on the one hand, or stay home and pretend to be doing homework on the other. "Sure, why not?"

That was how Koujirou found himself sitting in the bleachers under a merciless July sun the next morning, watching the pair of high school teams milling around on the tennis courts below. "So what happened to Seishun this year?" he asked, since it was Rikkai's high school division up against Yuuta's high school, St. Christopher, and he wasn't even sure he'd ever heard of St. Christopher.

Shuusuke scowled. "Got slaughtered by Hyoutei at Prefecturals. Momo was down with a sprained ankle, and Hyoutei--well. Hyoutei's Hyoutei."

"Ouch. That's too bad." Koujirou shaded his eyes against the sun and squinted down at the St. Christopher team. "Been a while, so refresh my memory. Which one's Yuu-chan?" Three years, come to think of it. How'd that happened?

"He's the tall skinny one bossing people around, who else?"

"What, they let him be captain? Are they crazy?" Koujirou laughed, but okay, that was Yuuta down there after all--and skinny wasn't really accurate. Wiry was, maybe, or whipcord thin; Yuuta was lean and tanned dark, and-- "No wonder I didn't recognize him. What's he doing smiling?"

"Weird, isn't it?" Shuusuke snorted. "I think he figured out that it wouldn't break his face."

"Huh. Go figure." Suited him, though, at least while he was goofing off on the sidelines with his team while people filtered into the stands. "If Seishun got slaughtered by Hyoutei, what happened to Hyoutei?"

"Yuuta did," Shuusuke said, in that offhand way he had when he was trying not to sound too smug.

Koujirou looked away from the courts to see that Shuusuke was preening just a bit. "Seriously?" He'd figured that Hyoutei had ended up on Rikkai's side of the bracket, since some years the draw just ended up like that.

"Seriously." Shuusuke tipped his head at the courts. "Not a bad team, from what I hear."

"Good enough to take Rikkai?" Koujirou asked, and looked at the ranks of the Rikkai team, standing straight and disdainful of the horseplay going on across the courts. That was Rikkai all over, though--too damn proud and upright for their own good.

"That's what we're here to find out." Shuusuke leaned back on his hands. "There are worse ways to spend a Sunday."

Considering the homework back at their apartment, waiting for him to do it, yes, there certainly were, even if it was too damn hot. "Finally," Koujirou said, when the two teams met each other at the net, and Yuuta shook Kirihara's hand. "I was wondering whether they ever going to get started."

Doubles Two went to Rikkai, 6-4, 6-3, but St. Christopher took Doubles One right back, 6-3, 7-5. Both matches were good ones, played fast and hard, and made Koujirou sit up a little bit straighter to watch them. "How come I've never heard of St. Christopher?" he asked, while the Singles Three players were taking the court and spinning for the first serve.

"It's new, like St. Rudolph was," Shuusuke told him. "They're affiliated. Yuuta says they're still building up the sports programs. This is the first year they've had a tennis team get very far in the tournament."

"Guess that explains it." It explained why Yuuta hadn't ended up at Seishun, too, for that matter. "They're pretty good."

"Not bad," Shuusuke agreed, and then they quieted down for the match.

Singles Three took a while. The players struggled over every point, and drove the sets into tie-breaks twice before Rikkai finally took the third set. At the bench, Yuuta clapped his player's shoulder once, saying something to him that made the guy nod and duck his head before going to cool down, and then Yuuta went back to watching Singles Two getting started.

"It's a good team," Shuusuke said, halfway into the first set, when the St. Christopher player was leading by two games. "I wonder what their third years are going to do next year."

Koujirou glanced sideways at him. "Didn't Yuuta swear he wouldn't ever play on the same team as you again?"

"He only said it. He didn't promise it."

"Oh, well. That's a different story." It was still an unlikely one, unless Yuuta had changed a lot over the past three years, but if Shuusuke wanted to try...

Yuuta left during the second set, taking a racquet and one of his teammates with him. Kirihara did the same thing, a couple of games later. Koujirou couldn't blame either of them. St. Christopher's player reminded him a lot of Shuusuke: all technical genius and impossibly precise shots deployed at exactly the right moment. Rikkai's player--although very, very good--couldn't seem to keep up with him. "That one's pretty good," Koujirou said. "Going to recruit him, too?"

"I think he's only a second year." Shuusuke sounded like he was considering it anyway. "Maybe next year."

"It's good to plan ahead." Even if they were only freshmen on the university team, and their senpai were plenty good on their own.

Singles Two ended about like he'd expected it to, 6-4, 6-4, and that left St. Christopher tied at two matches apiece when Yuuta and Kirihara took the courts. Koujirou squinted down at them, and yeah, Yuuta _was_ grinning across the net as he shook Kirihara's hand. "Since when does Yuu-chan smile when he's playing?"

"A lot can change in a few years. It was..." Shuusuke paused. "I think living away from--home--has been good for him. Not that you ever heard me say that."

"Heard you say what?" Koujirou asked, as Yuuta took up his position at the baseline. Shuusuke snorted softly, and then Yuuta drew himself up to serve, one long clean line of motion as he brought his arm up over his head and smashed the ball across the net. All of a sudden he wasn't a stranger with Yuu-chan's face anymore. He wasn't even a stranger named Yuuta anymore--he was just a guy playing tennis. Beautiful tennis at that, every movement liquid and economical and burning with passion for the game. Koujirou watched, mesmerized by the length of his stride as he bounded across the court to return a shot, and by the flash of toned stomach when Yuuta jumped to intercept a smash, and by the way he grinned when he took a point.

Shuusuke hummed between the first and the second set, thoughtful. "He's playing pretty well," he said, slow and deliberate, "but Kirihara's still got muga. This is probably going to end in Rikkai's favor."

"I guess so." Koujirou wasn't really listening. Yuuta was dumping a bottle of water over his face. The sight of it running down his face and throat and making his shirt cling to his chest made Koujirou's stomach tighten in wholly inappropriate ways.

"I wonder what he asked me to come and watch him play for," Shuusuke said. Fortunately, Koujirou was saved from having to answer that when Kirihara and Yuuta took to the court again. This time Kirihara had first serve, and he started off intense. Koujirou hadn't ever tried for muga himself, but he'd seen Kirihara play enough times before to see that he was hovering on the edge of muga. That was impressive; Koujirou wouldn't have expected Yuuta to be able to push him that hard. It was even more impressive that Yuuta was keeping up with him, at least until Kirihara slipped all the way over into muga, face going still and watchful and every movement sharp-edged with precision. He took the game that way, and Shuusuke sighed. "I hope Yuuta won't get too upset--"

But Yuuta didn't look like he was upset, even though he was trailing by a game and a set, and when he served, it was with the same still expression that Kirihara was wearing. The rally that followed was rapid and flawless, both of them moving to intercept the ball before it even touched the other's racquet. When Yuuta took the point, Koujirou realized that he'd been holding his breath, and had to gulp for air. "Holy shit," he said, "holy shit, when did your brother reach muga?"

"The little shit," Shuusuke said, just as breathless. "He never said a word. I'm going to _kill him_."

"Don't do that." Koujirou had most of his attention on watching the rapid back-and-forth of the ball below, and not nearly enough on what was coming out of his mouth. "He's way too hot to kill." He cringed almost as soon as he'd said it, especially when he heard Shuusuke suck in a breath. Talk about the spectacularly inappropriate...

"I am going to pretend that I never heard you say that," Shuusuke announced, after Yuuta took another point.

"Well, he is," Koujirou muttered, mostly for the sake of being teasing Shuusuke. "Very hot."

"He's my little brother. Ew." He could hear how Shuusuke's nose was wrinkled. "Besides, he had a girlfriend, last time Kaasan managed to get him to talk about something that wasn't tennis."

"...damn," Koujirou said, as Yuuta took the game.

"Stop perving on my little brother. It's creepy." Shuusuke elbowed him to punctuate the order.

Koujirou bit his tongue to keep himself from saying anything _truly_ inappropriate, and subsided into silence for the rest of the set.

It went on, and on, individual points won and lost in exchanges that went by so fast that even Koujirou found it difficult to track the ball. The problem was that for a while, neither Kirihara nor Yuuta could draw ahead for long enough to win. Eventually Yuuta pushed hard for several points straight and took the set, tying them at one set apiece.

"When _did_ he learn muga?" Shuusuke muttered during the short break before the third set. "He didn't just evolve it, that's for sure, and I would have heard about it if he'd used it before..."

"Maybe he wanted it to be a secret weapon." Koujirou sat back on his hands, stretching his back. It wasn't like St. Christopher wasn't already going to Nationals already, by virtue of being in the regional finals, but if Yuuta was still even half as competitive as he'd been as a kid, he'd probably decided that first place in Kantou was much better than second place. "Stop freaking out about it. Ask him after the match is over."

"Oh, you'd better believe that I will," Shuusuke muttered. "Yuuta and I are going to have words."

Koujirou looked away from where Yuuta was in earnest conversation with his coach. "Hey. How long has it been since Yuuta moved out and started handling everything himself?"

Shuusuke's jaw tightened, the muscle at the corner flickering, and then he let out a breath. "Point."

"He was the one who asked you to come watch him today, right?" Perhaps Shuusuke had forgotten.

"...yeah." Shuusuke shook his head, but his eyes were rueful and he was starting to smile again. "The little bastard."

Koujirou congratulated himself on another Fuji moment successfully defused, and returned his attention to the tennis court. The break was coming to an end, and Kirihara and Yuuta resumed their places. Koujirou leaned forward again as the final set began.

The third set went on much the way the second had, fast-but-slow, neither player giving a centimeter to the other, and Koujirou wasn't sure he could honestly predict which one of them was going to take the match. Kirihara did, eventually, but not before Yuuta fought him into a tie-break first.

And even though he'd lost--his team had lost, in fact--Yuuta was outright grinning when he shook Kirihara's hand after the match, open like a little boy's grin. Koujirou tried to remember whether he'd ever seen Yuuta smile like that when he'd _been_ a little kid, and couldn't remember, while something knotted up in his chest. Girlfriend, he reminded himself, sternly. Yuuta had a girlfriend and was off-limits, and probably wouldn't be much interested anyway, and since when was he so shallow that a handsome face was all it took to make him fall in love, anyway?

The problem was that he wasn't convincing himself very well.

Both he and Shuusuke twitched their way through the closing ceremonies, and when it was all over, Shuusuke cocked his head. "You coming with me?" he asked, as people began filtering out of the stands.

"Sure, why not?"

Shuusuke gave him a look that said, quite plainly, that he suspected Koujirou of ulterior motives, but since he didn't tell him to stop perving on Yuuta again, Koujirou figured it was all right to tag along.

St. Christopher was in the middle of packing up their tennis gear and listening to Yuuta, who was grinning and waving his hands around as he described what sounded like plans for crushing the tennis world at Nationals. If any of them were downcast about coming in second, Koujirou couldn't tell.

Yuuta noticed the two of them and broke off planning Rikkai's downfall in mid-sentence. "Aniki!" he called, and came bounding over. "You came!" His grin turned mischievous. "Whadja think?"

"You little bastard," Shuusuke said, and pulled him down. Yuuta laughed and suffered Shuusuke to scrub his knuckles against Yuuta's head. "When did you hit muga?"

"A while ago." Yuuta eeled out of Shuusuke's grasp. "Pretty cool, huh?" And then he looked at Koujirou. "You came too, Sae?"

He looked delighted; it made things in Koujirou's chest twist up even further. Koujirou ignored them. "Sure did. Hell of a game, Yuupyon." The old nickname came off his tongue easily, and made Yuuta laugh.

"Just wait till Nationals," he promised.

"I'm looking forward to it," Koujirou said, easily.

Shuusuke broke in again. "Seriously, Yuuta, muga?" He gestured. "How do you keep a secret like that from your own brother?"

Yuuta's teeth flashed white against his tan. "Not as hard as you think it is, Aniki."

"Hmph. I don't get any respect from you, do I?"

"Not a bit."

Shuusuke reached up and knuckled Yuuta's head again. "Maybe I'd better drag you onto a court and remind you what respect looks like, huh?"

Koujirou held his breath, wondering if the amicable bickering was going to turn sour on him, but Yuuta's grin just spread a notch wider. "You sure it wouldn't be the other way around?"

"I can still beat you, muga or not," Shuusuke told him.

"Oh yeah?" Yuuta was still grinning, but his eyes had gone sharp. "Wanna bet?"

"You're on," Shuusuke said.

They looked like they were on the verge of taking it to the court right then and there, but Yuuta's Singles Two player cleared his throat. "I hate to interrupt your pissing match, buchou, but Ishikawa-sensei says it's time to go."

"Already? Shit." Yuuta pointed at Shuusuke. "Call me. We'll set something up. Good seeing you, Sae. Later!" With that, he loped off to join his team.

"You two never do change, do you?" Koujirou rolled his eyes at Shuusuke. "Am I going to have to referee this match, too?" Heaven knew that it had been a good thing he'd been there the last time they'd played each other. And he wouldn't mind getting to see--no, bad thoughts. He wasn't going to go there.

Shuusuke glanced at him, but whatever was going on inside his head didn't make it onto his face. "Maybe you should."

"All right." Koujirou forced his grin to stay easy. "Just let me know. You hungry?"

"Starving," Shuusuke said. "Let's go."

They went, and the memory of Yuuta's grin stayed with Koujirou for the rest of the day, no matter how hard he tried to forget it.

   
 

The last time he'd seen Yuuta and Shuusuke play, Koujirou had been a second year in middle school, and Yuuta had just started attending Seigaku, and hadn't been doing so well there. Koujirou had made the trip out to Tokyo to visit his friends, and somehow they'd ended up on the tennis courts. Yuuta had played a match with him--had beaten him, in fact, which had surprised the hell out of Koujirou at the time; he hadn't expected Yuuta to be that good. Then Shuusuke had stepped onto the court, and things had turned... ugly.

Koujirou had thought, later, that he might have been the only one who'd not been surprised that Yuuta had transferred away from Seigaku.

This game... wasn't ugly at all. For one thing, Yuuta was pushing Shuusuke hard. For another, he was laughing, even when Shuusuke took points and games off him. The two of them were a lot more evenly matched this time that Koujirou had expected. He thought that it was closer than Shuusuke had thought it would be, too, judging by the expression on Shuusuke's face. It might have been more even than Yuuta himself had thought it would be, going by the way he lit up after the final set (Shuusuke's win, but not by much). "Hah!" he crowed, triumphant, "not bad!"

"Pretty damn good, if you ask me," Koujirou said, hopping down from the judge's chair. "Play a game with me too, Yuupyon."

Yuuta agreed readily, and that was how Koujirou found himself facing Yuuta across the net again. Koujirou didn't expect that the match would go that much differently than it had the last time he'd played Yuuta. That was all right, though. He hadn't asked for this game because he'd wanted to win it.

Which was probably a good thing, considering. Yuuta may have been grinning, but he was still playing for blood. His focus seared across the net, and no matter what Koujirou tried, Yuuta was there to return every shot, almost like...

"Just when did you start playing like an all-rounder, anyway?" Koujirou asked him, once he'd been well and truly defeated.

Yuuta, sprawled out on his bench, laughed. "Started working on it when I went to St. Chris," he said. "It was Ishikawa-sensei's idea."

"You're pretty good," Shuusuke said, lightly. "If I'm not careful, they're going to start calling you the tensai."

Koujirou tensed, waiting for the explosion, but Yuuta shrugged. "I'm not a tensai," he said. "I just work really hard." He took a long drink of water, ignoring the way the two of them were staring at him. "You two free again next week? This was really helpful."

Shuusuke recovered faster than Koujirou did. "Are you using us for extra training?" he asked, after an astonished moment.

Yuuta grinned. "I use everything to train, Aniki."

"I guess you need to, if you're going to get back at Rikkai at Nationals," Shuusuke agreed.

"Damn right I do." Yuuta's eyes gleamed. "So how about it? Are you free?"

Koujirou glanced at Shuusuke, and then shrugged. Well, Yuuta had asked both of them. "Dunno what Shuusuke's planning on being up to, but I'm free."

One of Shuusuke's eyebrows looked like it wanted to twitch upwards, but all he said was, "Of course I'm free."

"Great." Yuuta bounced to his feet like he hadn't just played two hard matches. "All right, I've got crazy amounts of homework to do. See you next week!"

"Later." Koujirou waved, lazy, while Shuusuke murmured his own goodbyes. Koujirou waited till Yuuta had jogged out of earshot to say, "All right, so who is that, and what do you think he's done with the real Yuupyon?"

"I don't have the first idea." Shuusuke finished off his water and fished another bottle out of his bag. "It was kind of nice to play a match with him and not get yelled at afterwards, though."

"I bet." It was nice to watch, too. "Think he can take Rikkai at Nationals?"

Shuusuke took a long drink. "Yuuta could. I'm not so sure about his team, but... Yuuta ought to have a pretty good shot at it. Especially if he takes those weights off."

"Yeah, I saw those too." And Yuuta'd moved like they weren't even there. "Hate to break it to you, Shuusuke, but I think your brother's scarier than you are right now."

Shuusuke slanted a smile at him, rueful at the edges. "I think you're right."

   
 

"So," Yuuta said the Sunday before Nationals, "are you gonna come see me play, or what?"

"I dunno, it's kind of a long trip to Kyoto." Koujirou leaned back on his hands, content to just sit after the match Yuuta'd just put him through. "What if we get out there and you wash out in the first round?"

Yuuta gestured at him, rude, and that made Koujirou laugh. "We're not going to wash out." Yuuta was bristling, but there wasn't much actual heat behind his growl.

It was kind of nice that Yuuta'd learned how to handle being teased. "You'd better not. Those tickets were expensive."

"You already bought them?" Yuuta straightened up out of his artless sprawl across the bench as Shuusuke returned.

"Bought what?" Shuusuke asked, handing around the bottles of water he'd gone to purchase.

"Tickets to watch Yuupyon play next weekend." Koujirou cracked the seal on his water. "He wanted to know whether we were going."

He saw the flicker of hesitation before Shuusuke reached over and ruffled Yuuta's hair. "Idiot. Of course we're going."

Yuuta laughed and ducked away from his hand. "I wasn't sure! ...it's kind of a trip, and you probably have better things to do with your vacation."

"Oh, please. Like we'd miss it," Shuusuke told him.

Yuuta's grin was so bright that Koujirou wished _he'd_ been the one to say that. "Seriously," he said. "Got a hotel room for all three days, too, so you'd better go all the way to the finals."

"Like there's any doubt of that happening." Yuuta was still grinning. "St. Chris is going all the way to the top."

With that kind of conviction behind them, Koujirou didn't doubt it for a moment.

   
 

"So congratulations," Koujirou told Shuusuke after quarter-finals, when St. Christopher had soundly defeated a team from Okinawa which most people had figured would trounce the newcomer school, "your brother's officially a dark horse."

Shuusuke smiled, just as pleased as if it had been _him_ doing all the upsetting. "I think he is." Koujirou was sure that if he'd been a cat, Shuusuke would have been grooming his whiskers. "Fun, isn't it?"

"If you like messing with people." Maybe it was just genetic, Koujirou thought. Part of being a Fuji was enjoying taking people's ideas about how the world ought to work and standing them on end. Koujirou stretched, catching an elbow behind his head. "Wait, this is you I'm talking about. Never mind."

"I'd be offended, but it's true," Shuusuke said, peaceably. "Now... where are they?"

Koujirou lifted himself to his toes to peer over the heads of the crowd. "I don't--oh, wait, there they are." That was the unmistakably bright hair of Yuuta's singles players up ahead. "We're going in the right direction."

"Great." Shuusuke let him do the wading through the crowd, until Koujirou pushed through to the patch of grass St. Christopher's team had staked out for their lunch. Yuuta was nowhere in evidence, which left the two of them to face down several inquisitive looks on their own.

"Can I help you?" one of the doubles players asked, after a moment.

"Hope so," Koujirou said. "We're here to have lunch with you."

The guy's face brightened. "Oh, you must be Yuuta-buchou's older brother."

They all looked puzzled when Koujirou cracked up, but he couldn't help it, not when Shuusuke's expression was suffused with shock at hearing himself described like that. He was still laughing when Yuuta arrived and demanded to know what the joke was.

"Don't know, buchou," one of the other doubles players said. "They showed up and Miyamoto said hello, and he just started laughing." He paused. "You never said your brother was this weird."

"That's not my brother, that's Sae. Who is pretty weird, yeah," Yuuta conceded. "Seriously, Sae, what the hell?"

"It was the look on his face when that guy called him 'Yuuta's older brother'," Koujirou told him, gesturing at Shuusuke.

Yuuta's expression shifted to something inscrutable, and for a second, Koujirou wondered if there were still some things he hadn't gotten over after all. Then Yuuta rolled his eyes. "That's a new one." He flopped down and snagged a bento for himself. "Sit down and have something to eat, huh?"

"Don't mind if I do," Shuusuke said, and folded himself up with a wry little smile.

At least he didn't seem to be planning on going up in flames the way Yuuta had used to do.

Koujirou had just made himself comfortable, tucking away the names of Yuuta's teammates between bites of his lunch, when Yuuta's coach joined them. "So what's it going to be?" Yuuta asked him.

Heads around the circle came up, Yuuta's team going alert--like a pack of wolves, Koujirou decided, testing the scent on the wind.

"Sendai for us," their coach said, and took a seat among them. "Shibuya and Rikkai across the bracket."

"Right. Thought it'd be Sendai. All right, cool." Yuuta began shoveling food into his mouth, eyes distant. "They're the power players, so. Morita, I want you in Singles Three. I'll take Singles Two." He tapped his chopsticks against the side of his bento, thinking. "Ogata, you take Singles One. Hiiyama, Asano, I want you in Doubles Two, and Fukuyama, Konishi, you take Doubles One."

"You're going to meet them head-on?" Shuusuke asked, probably because he couldn't help himself.

"There any other way to do it?" Yuuta asked, attention snapping back to the present, coming to bear on Shuusuke. "I'm all ears."

Shuusuke looked at the St. Christopher players, mulling it over. "Probably not, if Sendai's team is like last year's," he said. "That was how Hyoutei beat them, or so I heard."

"Yeah, I know. I saw the match." Yuuta prodded his food idly. "We've got the strength. Have technique to back it up with, too."

"Weights on or off?" Morita asked.

"Up to you," Yuuta said, absently. "Do what you think you need to do to win." He glanced at his brother. "Don't suppose either of you went to see Sendai, did you?"

"Sorry, Yuupyon, we didn't know you wanted us to scout your opponents for you," Koujirou told him.

"...Yuupyon?" Ogata echoed, grinning.

"Oh, don't you even _think_ about it." Yuuta gave them both an evil look. "Sae knew me when I was still wearing footie-pajamas, okay?"

His team looked like they were trying to reconcile their captain with the idea of footie-pajamas, and were failing, so Koujirou told them, "They had dinosaurs on them."

"Yes, _thank_ you, Sae." Yuuta waved a hand. "My point is, you get to give me silly nicknames because you knew me when, and none of these jokers do." He gave his team a fierce look, which didn't faze them at all.

"Whatever you say, Yuupyon-buchou," Miyamoto told him, cheerful.

That pretty much wrapped the strategy session up, because Yuuta handed his bento to Ogata to hold and lunged for Miyamoto, and before they were done, things had devolved into a five-way wrestling match while the rest of the team laughed and cheered them on.

   
 

"So what were you talking to Ishikawa-san about?" Koujirou asked that night, after they'd returned to their tiny hotel room following the victory celebration-cum-war council. He flopped onto his futon and stared at the ceiling, wondering whether he wanted to move long enough to undress.

Shuusuke's reply was a long time coming, as he fussed with his luggage. "I was asking him about St. Christopher's university affiliates."

Koujirou closed his eyes. "Why not just ask Yuuta himself?" Surely Yuuta hadn't changed so much that he'd stopped minding it when Shuusuke snuck around behind his back.

"He was busy plotting Rikkai's doom. I didn't want to bother him."

There was something wrong with Shuusuke's tone. Koujirou pushed himself up on an elbow and looked at Shuusuke. "So what'd Ishikawa-san tell you?"

Shuusuke's hands, buried in his duffel bag, went still. "Well, St. Christopher has a couple of university affiliates, and one of them already has a sports program that's pretty solid."

That wasn't any reason for Shuusuke to be looking so grim; it wasn't like either of them had _honestly_ expected Yuuta to be willing to consider going to Seishun for university. "But...?" he prompted, when it didn't seem like Shuusuke was going to go on.

Shuusuke looked up, and gave him a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "But Ishikawa-san doesn't expect Yuuta to go to university."

Koujirou frowned. "He doesn't? I thought Yuuta studied pretty hard." He always seemed to be zooming off to do homework after their Sunday afternoon games.

"He does, I think." Shuusuke's smile disappeared. "Ishikawa-san thinks Yuuta's going to go pro."

He waited, but Shuusuke didn't start laughing, didn't grin and tell him it was a joke. After a minute, Koujirou flopped back down. "Huh. Yuupyon the pro."

He heard Shuusuke let out the breath. "Apparently. Not that Yuuta's said anything about it."

"It's Yuuta, Shuusuke. You know he keeps his cards close to his chest." Koujirou turned his head to study Shuusuke. "It's not a sure thing yet, right?"

"Ishikawa-san sounded pretty sure." Shuusuke ran a hand through his hair. "Fuck."

Koujirou curled onto his own side. "So does this mean I get to call you Yuuta's older brother from now on?"

He wasn't sure whether the joke would work or not, but after a moment Shuusuke smiled, reluctantly. "You'll have to wait until after he's won his first Grand Slam."

"I can do that. I'm a patient guy." He waited for the soft huff of Shuusuke's laughter to subside. "You all right?"

Shuusuke smiled, bright. "Of course I am." He resumed rummaging through his bag. "I'm going to go get a bath."

Koujirou let the lie pass unchallenged, and crossed his arms behind his head once Shuusuke had left the room.

Yuuta the tennis pro. Yeah, he could see it--could wonder, a little, how he hadn't seen it coming, actually, when Yuuta was as big a tennis maniac as he'd ever met. Yeah, it made sense.

Made other things even less likely than they'd been before, but that wasn't news either. Koujirou snorted at himself, and made himself get up and change into pajamas and turn out the light. When Shuusuke came back in, he pretended that he was asleep, and Shuusuke seemed willing enough to let him get away with it.

   
 

"I feel like we've been here before," Koujirou said, when it came down to Singles One between Rikkai and St. Christopher.

"We have been." Shuusuke's voice was taut. "Just a month ago."

Courtside, Yuuta was testing the tension of his racquet, listening intently to whatever it was that Ishikawa was telling him. He'd discarded the weights he'd been wearing every time Koujirou had seen him in the past month, and was shifting from foot to foot like he was testing his balance, or maybe how demanding gravity was going to be today.

Across the way from him, Kirihara was waiting and watching.

"What are they waiting for?" Shuusuke shifted restlessly. "Honestly."

"Easy," Koujirou told him, "they're going to start any minute now... there, see?" Kirihara and Yuuta were walking to the net to shake hands and spin for the first serve.

He'd gotten used to the way Yuupyon smiled all the time now, but today that grin was gone and Yuuta looked more like the short-tempered middle-schooler Koujirou remembered. He kind of missed the grin, he decided, even if this was the final round of Nationals.

"So that's what he looks like when he gets serious," Shuusuke said, softly.

_Gets serious?_ "You're kidding, right?"

"Don't think so." Shuusuke shook his head. "You were right." The corner of his mouth kicked up. "He's gotten really scary."

"Yeah," Koujirou said, "he has." And then the match began.

Both of them dispensed with the preliminaries and started off in muga, Kirihara serving and Yuuta bounding to return it, which kicked off an astonishing rally. They were matched--evenly matched, more so that just about anyone else seemed to have expected, given the muttering and the rustlings in the stands around him and Shuusuke.

Kirihara took the first set, but Yuuta took the second one, and everyone in the stands seemed to be leaning forward as they headed into the third set. Koujirou knew he was barely breathing as Kirihara and Yuuta traded points and games back and forth, neither of them getting more than the point or two ahead it took to take a game. By the time they broke into a tiebreak, Koujirou was on the edge of his seat. "C'mon, Yuupyon," he breathed, as Shuusuke twisted his hands together, fidgeting along with him. "C'mon, you can do it..."

It didn't look like he was going to; Kirihara took the lead early and edged ahead by a couple of points. Then Yuuta caught up, took another point, and another, until they were five and five, and Shuusuke was muttering along with Koujirou, urging Yuuta along.

The rally that followed went on forever as Yuuta and Kirihara bounded back and forth, pulling off returns and shots that they shouldn't have been able to do, not after playing three hard sets already--and then Yuuta hit a cross-shot to Kirihara's baseline that was just barely in, and took the next point.

"Come on." Shuusuke was practically pleading. "Come on, it's just one more point, you can do it."

Koujirou was dizzy from barely breathing, and couldn't feel his fingers anymore from digging them into his knees, and it was Yuuta's turn to serve. The moment he spent standing at the baseline drew out, and out, until Yuuta tossed the ball into the air and smashed it across the net. Kirihara was already swooping down to return it, and the rally was on. It was a thing of beauty, grace and power and precision so fine it made Koujirou's heart catch, made him half-hope it would never end.

And then it did, with a drop shot that had the ball wobbling at the top of the net for a heart-stopping moment before it dropped onto Kirihara's side of the court and rolled to a stop.

The stadium was silent for half a beat, and then roared. Koujirou couldn't hear anything that was being announced over the sound of Shuusuke screaming in his ear, but that was all right, because he was on his feet, screaming back, because _holy crap_, Yuuta had actually pulled it off.

   
 

It wasn't their victory by any stretch of the imagination, but somehow he and Shuusuke ended up getting swept up in St. Christopher's euphoria anyway. Koujirou didn't know quite how it had happened, but didn't suppose he minded tagging along with them and watching them celebrate their win. Yuupyon looked like he was walking on a solid meter of air, grinning so hard that his face had to be aching with it. Just looking at him made Koujirou grin himself.

Yuuta's team didn't seem to want to let their captain get out of arm's length, either. Koujirou lost track of the number of times one of them had ruffled Yuuta's hair or slapped his back in congratulations, which was probably just as it should be. Yuuta himself kept laughing and insisting that he couldn't have beaten Kirihara if his team hadn't gotten him there. "Besides, I had lots of extra training help," he said.

Did that mean him and Shuusuke? By the way Yuuta was looking at them, Koujirou figured it did. "Don't be so modest, Yuupyon," he said. "You kicked some serious ass today."

If it had been just about anyone else, he would have called the way Yuuta ducked his head _bashful_. "I guess I didn't do too bad," he conceded.

"Listen to him, would you?" Koujirou shook his head. "Next thing I know, you're going to be gunning for Shuusuke."

Shuusuke looked up at that, and Koujirou saw his fingers go still where they'd been toying with the label on his soda. "There is that," he said, carefully. "When were you going to get around to doing it?"

Yuuta hesitated before he said, "...not too long now, I guess."

"Just let me know," Shuusuke said, lightly.

"I will," Yuuta said, and Koujirou guessed it was settled.

   
 

The thing was, Koujirou didn't recall them talking about it at all, and heaven knew that Shuusuke hadn't said anything to him. Nevertheless, they both took their tennis gear out to the street courts the next Sunday. Yuuta was waiting for them, looking more sober than he normally did for these Sunday games. He wasn't wearing the ankle and wrist weights Koujirou was used to seeing on him, either. The absence of them made his wrists look more fragile than Koujirou knew they had to be, and--no, he wasn't going to think about that. Really he wasn't.

This wasn't the time or the place, anyway, not when Shuusuke was tipping his head at Yuuta and asking, "You ready?"

Yuuta's mouth kicked up into a wry half-smile. "Guess we'll find out."

Koujirou took the judge's chair and called the game for them, even though he suspected that neither of them needed him to do it. They both moved like they kept the score in their heads, like they knew where the other was and where he was going to be. It was easily the most beautiful game he'd ever see them play, both of them playing to their limits, and no matter what happened, it was a privilege to get to see it.

In the silence after he called the final score--two sets for Yuuta, one for Shuusuke--the two of them looked at each other without saying anything, until Shuusuke came to the net and offered Yuuta his hand. "Good game," he said, as Yuuta shook it, solemn.

"Thanks," Yuuta said, and that was all he said until after they'd retired from the court and were installed on the benches. "I've had some phone calls from some scouts," he announced, abrupt.

"What did you tell them?" Shuusuke asked. Koujirou studied him, but his calm seemed to be genuine.

"That I needed a little time to think. And some time to do something." Yuuta picked at the face of his racquet, playing with the tension of the gut.

"Yeah, and?" Shuusuke prompted him.

Yuuta glanced at him sideways. "I didn't want to say yes to anyone if I couldn't win against you."

Koujirou exhaled. There was that settled, then.

Shuusuke didn't say anything immediately. He sat with his hands hanging between his knees, twisting his water bottle between them. "I don't suppose there was ever really any question of that."

Yuuta's sudden smile was rueful. "Maybe not from where _you're_ sitting." He lowered his racquet and rubbed the back of his neck. "I wasn't as sure."

"I was," Shuusuke told him.

Yuuta snorted, but let it be. "So, uh, don't say anything to Kaasan yet? I'm not sure I'm ready to handle the freak-out."

Shuusuke smiled. "She's not going to freak out, unless crying because she's so proud counts."

Yuuta looked deeply embarrassed at the _thought_. "You mean it doesn't?"

"Of course it doesn't." Shuusuke reached over and ruffled his hair. "Don't be silly."

Yuuta submitted to the tousling, practically meek. "Whatever. I'm not ready to deal with it yet."

"Then you can be the one to tell her," Shuusuke said, agreeable enough. He ruffled Yuuta's hair again. "Congratulations."

Yuuta ducked away, and it looked like they were done negotiating their Fuji moment, so Koujirou leaned over and knuckled his head. "Seriously. Congratulations, Yuupyon. Nice work."

"I suppose you won't be needing to practice with us on Sundays any more," Shuusuke said. Koujirou shot a look at him, but Shuusuke was wearing one of his enigmatic smiles, the ones that even Koujirou couldn't read. "Now that you're going pro and all."

Maybe they weren't done dealing with the Fuji Issues after all. Koujirou stifled his sigh and braced himself, but Yuuta mostly just looked uncertain. "I'd kind of wanted to. While I still could, you know?" he said. "Unless you don't want to...?"

"Well, _I_ still do," Koujirou said, because hell if he was going to let Shuusuke put his foot in it for both of them. "I gotta get my Yuupyon time in while I still can, right?"

"Of course I still want to play," Shuusuke said. "I just didn't know whether you still wanted to train with me, is all."

Koujirou relaxed, and Yuuta rolled his eyes. "I only beat you _once_," he said. "Once, and how many times have you beaten me? Please." He paused. "But if you have other things you need to do..."

"Not really." Shuusuke looked rather gratified to be wanted, actually.

Koujirou shook his head, giving up on ever really understanding the ways Shuusuke's mind worked. "Whatever." He reached over and poked Yuuta. "All right, you. Come play a game with me and show me how the big-shot pros do it."

Yuuta laughed. "I'm not a pro yet," he said. "I don't even have a firm offer."

But he followed Koujirou onto the court anyway, so that was okay.

   
 

The one really cool thing about Yuuta planning on going pro was that he got a lot less worried about getting back to his dorm to do homework after their weekend games. That meant he was free to stick around after they'd played themselves out. "Don't you have to study?" Shuusuke asked him, after a couple of weekends of Yuuta trailing along for burgers after their games.

"Some, yeah." Yuuta's shrug was careless. "But I'm not going to kill myself over it."

"You're not a tennis pro yet," Shuusuke reminded him, and got a dirty look in return for it. "You still have exams coming."

"I know that. You sound like Kaasan." Yuuta shrugged again. "Seriously, Aniki, it's okay. I don't have club on top of my regular training any more. That freed up a lot of time, you know?"

Koujirou thought it actually looked like Yuuta would have preferred to still have his club eating up all his time, but what did he know? "I don't think you need good grades to play tennis," he said, lazy. "Besides, when was the last time you opened a book at home, Shuusuke?"

Shuusuke made a face at him. "That's what my study groups are for."

"What, all two of them?"

Shuusuke opened his mouth, hesitated, and finally said, "Oh, never mind." But he left the subject of Yuuta's studying alone after that, which meant that Yuuta was free to join them for dinner. That suited Koujirou just fine, especially after Yuuta found out that he still played video games pretty avidly. Koujirou thought that maybe he shouldn't, but went ahead and challenged Yuuta to a match anyway, and Shuusuke's faintly-raised eyebrows be damned.

"You know, _you_ should be studying," Shuusuke said later, after Yuuta had left to catch the last train home. Shuusuke was on his way to bed, and Koujirou had just hauled the books out of his bag and was sorting through them, trying to decide where to start.

"Yeah, yeah, so what's your point?" Maybe the science reading first, that was pretty short...

Shuusuke looked at him like there was something he wanted to say, but he didn't quite know how to put it. Then he shook his head. "No point, I guess. Save some coffee for tomorrow morning."

"Sure thing." Koujirou waved a hand at him, shooing him away, and ignored the way Shuusuke shook his head all the way into his bedroom.

It was pretty cool to hang out, anyway, all three of them playing tennis and goofing off, even if it was affecting his normal routine of doing all his homework on Sunday nights. Shuusuke's being there kept him from thinking too many inappropriate things about Yuuta, because it was one thing to perve over a hot guy, and another thing entirely to perve over his best friend's little brother right in front of him. Since perving over Yuuta was pretty pointless anyway, between the whole going-pro thing and the not-into-guys thing, it was good to have Shuusuke around.

Then Shuusuke had to ruin it by going and getting a girlfriend who liked to choose Sundays for their dates.

Yuuta stared at him the first time he showed up and explained that Shuusuke couldn't make it because he was on a date. "He's what?"

"He's out on a date." Koujirou pursed his lips, trying to remember where Shuusuke'd said he was taking Fumiko-san. "Art museum, I think." It didn't much appeal to him, but Shuusuke had seemed to like the idea. Or the prospect of getting laid. Whichever.

"He... but..." Yuuta looked like he was trying to figure something out, but it wasn't going well. "...and you're okay with this?"

"Yeah, well, the walls are kind of thin, but that's what earplugs are for." Or loud music, or just staying out half the night with Yuupyon, if he could manage it.

Yuuta's brow furrowed. "But aren't you and Aniki _together_?"

Koujirou boggled--well, apparently it was his turn. "Me and your _brother_?" he sputtered. "What? No! Where did you get that from?"

Yuuta held up his hands. "Hey, it's not just me. My whole team thought you were, I don't know, married or something."

Koujirou found that he needed to sit down. "Married? Oh my holy fuck." There was a whole universe of wrong in that idea.

"Well, you live together and you practically finish each other's sentences, and I don't know anyone else who can get Aniki out of a snit as easily as you do."

Koujirou stared at him, appalled. "We're _best friends_."

Yuuta waved his hands. "It's not my fault! You know Aniki's got that ambiguously gay thing he does, and I've _seen_ you check out other guys! It seemed like a logical conclusion!"

"Oh my holy fuck." Was _this_ why he couldn't ever get a date when Shuusuke was around? "Oh my god, no. We're not. Definitely, definitely _not_. Not even a little bit. Oh my god."

"Huh," Yuuta said, after a moment. "Guess I lost _that_ bet." He paused and shook his head. "Man, I didn't see that one coming. Go figure."

Koujirou shook his head to clear it. "Point for my side, I guess," he managed, weak.

Yuuta's grin was sudden and bright. "Naw. Half a point, maybe. I was right about you, wasn't I?" He hesitated, and gnawed on his lip. "I mean, I was, right?"

"Um. Yeah." It was more difficult to look up and meet Yuuta's steady gaze than he would have liked, even though Yuuta had thought he and Shuusuke were _together_, for crying out loud. It wasn't like Yuuta was going to freak out on him now, of all times.

"Hah! I knew it. Okay, yeah, you get half a point." Yuuta grinned like he'd just won something real, although Koujirou couldn't for the life of him figure out what. "So, you up for a couple of games? Someone has to pick up Aniki's slack, and it looks like you're it."

Relief made Koujirou want to laugh. That probably wasn't the most prudent thing he could be doing, so instead he put on his most affable grin. "Anything you want, Yuupyon."

"Yeah?" Yuuta bounced on the balls of his feet. "You gotta be careful saying things like that, Sae. You never know what you're gonna get."

"Yeah, well, maybe I like to live dangerously," Koujirou told him, and followed him onto the tennis court.

Yuuta turned out to be willing to be coaxed into staying out late. They went from the tennis courts to an arcade, and from the arcade to dinner at a cheap ramen stand, where they stayed and talked until Yuuta glanced at his watch and (regretfully, Koujirou thought) said he had to get going. "See you next week?"

Koujirou allowed himself to ruffle Yuuta's hair. "Wouldn't miss it."

Yuuta smiled. "Good," he said. "Good. See you then."

"Yeah, see you then." Koujirou waved him off, and walked the long route home. The extra pair of shoes sitting just inside the door--sandals, high-heeled ones at that--said that Shuusuke's date had gone very well indeed.

Good for Shuusuke. Maybe he'd have to tell him about Yuuta's misconception in the morning, after Fumiko-san had gone home. Or maybe not. It'd depend on how smug a mood Shuusuke was in, and whether he'd need deflating. It'd be good for a laugh, anyway.

Koujirou dragged his homework into his bedroom, heard the sounds (muffled but unmistakable) from beyond the wall he shared with Shuusuke, and shook his head. "At least someone's getting lucky around here," he muttered, and fished his headphones out of his bag.

   
 

Fumiko-san persisted, in that Koujirou had to get used to waking up and finding her sitting in their tiny kitchen several days a week, sleepy-eyed and tousled. That wasn't so bad, really. She persisted in dragging Shuusuke out on Sundays, too, which Koujirou didn't mind at all, even if he knew very well that he should have. It gave him Yuuta to himself. More importantly, if Yuuta cared that he wasn't getting to hone himself against Shuusuke's tennis, he never let on. He seemed perfectly content to play a few sets with Koujirou and then go out for arcade games or dinner (or both) after.

Not having Shuusuke around also meant that Koujirou was the first person Yuuta told about accepting a contract, close to the end of September.

Koujirou guessed what was coming before Yuuta even opened his mouth. Yuuta was nearly thrumming with energy, even more than he usually did, and couldn't seem to stop moving. He fidgeted with his racquet and jogged his knee up and down, like he couldn't stay still or contain himself. He was so clearly ecstatic about _something_ that Koujirou couldn't think of anything else it might be.

Still, when Yuuta said, "So, guess what?" Koujirou played dumb, shrugged, and replied, "I dunno, what?"

Yuuta leaned towards, like they were conspiring over something. "So, I signed."

"Well, hot damn. Congratulations!" Koujirou hesitated, but hell, he was genuinely happy for Yuupyon, all grown up and on his way towards doing something he clearly wanted badly, and Yuuta wasn't likely to misunderstand. He tugged Yuuta into a rough hug and then ruffled his hair. "Hot damn. When're you heading out to conquer the world?"

Yuuta beamed at him. "Sometime in spring. After graduation. They've got some newcomer tournament they're going to put me in."

"Cool." It was easy enough to grin, because spring was still a long time away. "That bastard you call Aniki never said a word."

Yuuta ducked his head. "He doesn't know yet. You're the first person I've told."

Huh. Well... huh. Koujirou thought his smile at that might have been kind of stupid, but damned if he cared. "You want me to drag him out here for you?"

"Naw, I'll track him down later. Or he'll find out from Kaasan. Or something." Yuuta shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal. Probably it wasn't, for him.

"Well, I won't spoil the surprise for him." Rub it in later that Yuuta'd told him while Shuusuke was out with Fumiko-san--no. No, bad Koujirou. Let it go. "Anyway." He nudged Yuuta's ribs with his elbow. "Congratulations."

Yuuta grinned at him. "Thanks."

   
 

He was actually working on honest-to-god homework when Shuusuke answered his phone. Koujirou listened to Shuusuke's half of the conversation with half a distracted ear : _I'm fine, and you? What? You did?_ and then _Congratulations_. That was when Koujirou twigged to who Shuusuke was talking to and looked up to watch the play of expressions across Shuusuke's face. He didn't seem surprised--happy, yeah. Maybe a touch wistful, like he was thinking of his own decision not to go pro. There weren't any of the things Koujirou'd worried about seeing, so when Shuusuke caught him looking, Koujirou bent his head back down over his equations.

"So, I take it you already knew," Shuusuke said, when he'd hung up the phone.

"He mentioned it Sunday." Koujirou didn't look up from his homework. "I figured you ought to get to hear it from him."

"Probably." Shuusuke chuckled, soft. "My little brother the tennis pro. Who would have thought it?" It didn't sound like he wanted an answer, so Koujirou refrained from providing one. "I guess there won't be too many more Sunday games now."

"He's not going till spring," Koujirou said, more sharply than he'd intended.

He could feel Shuusuke looking at him. "The street courts will be pretty hard to play on when it's cold out."

Koujirou wasn't convinced that would stop Yuuta. Or that he'd let it stop himself. "There's clubs."

"Ah, yes. Of course." When Koujirou looked up, Shuusuke was shaking his head at him, like he'd done a lot lately. "Koujirou, what are we going to do with you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Shuusuke looked at him with that patient expression he'd taken to wearing a lot lately. "Fine, we won't talk about it," he said, and got up. "You know you're going to have to deal with it sometime, right?"

Koujirou thought he was dealing with it just fine, thanks, but before he could figure out how to respond, Shuusuke went out and left him alone.

   
 

After that, Koujirou couldn't make himself be too surprised when Shuusuke decided that for his birthday, he was taking Koujirou out to, in Shuusuke's words, "Find him some fun." Shuusuke was so earnest about it that Koujirou didn't have the heart to tell him how transparent he was being. That was how Koujirou found himself in a club downtown, getting drinks pressed into his hand after Shuusuke and Fumiko-san had made it generally known that there was a birthday to be celebrated. Once he was successfully buzzed, they pulled him onto the dance floor. He danced with Fumiko-san first, while Shuusuke looked on indulgently, and then someone slender and androgynous who shed glitter with every sinuous twist of his body--Koujirou remembered him, afterward, because of the amount of glitter that ended up on him, too. After that came a succession of pretty laughing girls who all blurred together into an amalgamation of pink lips and long lashes and soft curves that just really didn't do it for him.

There were also a few guys who were hanging around, looking good, but none of them made much of an impression on Koujirou either, until he took a break from the dancing to get another drink and the guy sitting next to him at the bar grinned at him. He was tall and lean, but not like some of the guys Koujirou had just danced with. This one was lean in a way that said he actually used some of those muscles, and if there was any calculation going on behind his eyes, Koujirou couldn't see. That was a nice change, too. "You the one who's celebrating?" the guy asked. Koujirou nodded. "Buy you a drink?"

"Sure, why not?" There wasn't any reason not to, not on his birthday, and not on any other day. Besides, it'd make Shuusuke happy.

The guy smiled and waved the bartender over, and ordered a couple of beers, which made a nice change from all the sugary cocktails. Koujirou dusted some of the glitter off himself as they waited. Damn, how long had it been since he'd done this, anyway? Since early summer, at least. "Thanks for the drink."

"You looked like you could use it," the guy said. "Clubbing not your thing?"

"I'm out of practice." Koujirou downed a third of his beer in one go--well, dancing was thirsty work. "My roommate thought it'd be good for me." And no doubt Shuusuke would be glad to see him over here, talking to someone.

"That who you came in with?" The guy had his head tipped just a bit, and now he looked just a little speculative.

He wasn't anything like subtle. Koujirou thought about it, and decided not to care. "Yeah. Him and his girlfriend."

The guy's mouth ticked up at the corner. "Ah."

Yeah, _ah_. Koujirou drank some more of his beer, mulling it over. Why the hell not? he decided. "Wanna dance?"

The guy's teeth gleamed when he smiled. "Thought you'd never ask."

The guy, whatever his name was, moved a lot like water, and wasn't shy about pressing up against Koujirou and letting their hips rock with the throb of the bass. He wasn't shy with his hands, either, or the narrow-eyed looks he gave anyone else who thought they might want to cut in. Koujirou considered the hand on his hip, the thumb that had slid under the hem of his shirt to rub against his skin, and thought, again, why the hell not? So when the guy jerked a shoulder towards the exit and raised an eyebrow, Koujirou nodded and went along with him.

He thought better of it almost immediately, told himself that he didn't care, and rode the last of his buzz until deep kisses and insistent hands made it even easier not to think. It wasn't until after Koujirou's head had cleared again and he was looking at the relaxed sprawl of the other guy, long legs and short hair, grey eyes set in a strong face, that he realized that he either had a type, or was even more pathetic than he'd previously suspected.

"Enjoy yourself last night?" Shuusuke asked the next morning, when Koujirou finally forced himself to crawl out of bed and face the day.

"Yeah, of course." What else was he supposed to say? "That was really thoughtful of you guys. Thanks." It was the thought that counted, not his own stupid decisions.

Shuusuke nodded like he was satisfied. "I thought it would do you some good to get out."

"Yeah," Koujirou said. "Yeah, it did. Gave me a lot to think about."

   
 

"So, hey, happy birthday," Yuuta told him Sunday. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry I didn't call or anything."

"Don't worry about it." Koujirou told himself not to feel so gratified that Yuuta had remembered, and moved on.

"Do anything fun?"

"Your brother and his girlfriend took me out." He didn't think anything about it, until Yuuta started to grin. Koujirou swatted at him. "Not like that. God."

"You're the one who said it, not me." Yuuta practically preened at his own virtue. "I'm not the one with the filthy mind."

"I never would have thought of it in the first place if it weren't for you." Koujirou swatted at him again, and connected this time.

Yuuta laughed and ducked away. "Sounds like denial to me."

"Bullshit," Koujirou said, distracted by the way Yuuta threw his head back and laughed. Okay. It wasn't that he had a type, he was pretty sure of that. No one else could make laughing look that good. It just meant he was really pathetic, is all. Great. "If there's anything I'm not, it's in denial." He'd never denied anything, especially not how bad an idea it was to fall for a straight guy who was leaving in the spring.

Yuuta's smile changed. "Sure thing, Sae. Whatever you say." He shook himself. "Anyway. Sorry I missed your birthday. Wanna do something? Besides tennis, I mean? My treat." He made a face. "I mean, I'm the tennis-crazy one. If you want to do something else and not humor me for once--"

"Naw, it's fine." Smiling at that was easy, felt honest. "I like playing you. It's the highlight of my week."

"Oh, please. Seriously. You don't have to humor me." But Yuuta did that little head-duck that meant he was pleased. "I mean it. Anything you want to do today, just say the word."

"Tennis," Koujirou said, firm. "And you can buy me dinner later, and come over and let me kick your ass at video games."

Yuuta screwed up his face. "Okay, I can't do the video games. I kind of have a test tomorrow. Rain check?"

He hadn't really meant it, aside from the tennis. "I was kidding--"

Yuuta didn't let him finish. "Nope, I said anything you want, and I meant it. You busy tomorrow night? I could come over then."

"...okay." Yuuta's jaw was set like he was planning on being stubborn, and that wasn't even worth fighting. "Yeah, okay, that'll work."

Yuuta smiled. "Okay, great." He rocked on his feet, grinning. "Tennis now?"

Koujirou smiled. "Yeah, tennis now."

   
 

Yuuta helped himself to another slice of pizza. "So where's Aniki?"

"He's got a study group that meets on Mondays." And Shuusuke had long since given up on asking him along. "Don't tell anyone I ever said this, but man, your brother makes me feel inadequate sometimes."

Yuuta burst into laughter, and had to put his pizza down. "He makes _you_ feel inadequate? Holy fuck, Sae. Welcome to my world."

Yeah, okay, so Yuupyon had a point, there. "Have I ever told you that I don't know how you managed not to kill him while you were living with him?" God knew that living with Shuusuke had made a lot of things about Yuuta make more sense.

"Hell, _I_ don't know how I did it." Yuuta attacked his slice of pizza again, gobbling it down.

Koujirou toasted him with his soda. "We're all amazed." He took a drink, and then shook his head. "Seriously, could he be any more obnoxiously perfect?"

"Probably not." Yuuta's smile was wry. "And people wonder why I went to St. Rudolph."

"Naw. I don't wonder. I'd have done it too, if he'd been my brother." Probably, anyway. He was a lot more inclined to let things go than Yuuta was, so maybe not. "At least I can tell him to shut up when I have to."

"Oh, like I ever let that stop me." Yuuta stuffed the last bite of crust in his mouth and swallowed. "Okay, ready for me to kick your ass some more?"

Koujirou rolled his eyes. "Please. You _wish_."

Yuuta's eyes gleamed. "Well, let's just see about that, huh?"

   
 

"Hah! Take that!" Koujirou cheered as Yuuta's character died, spectacularly.

"Son of a--" Yuuta dropped his controller. "I don't even know why I play you. I _never_ win."

Koujirou checked to make sure the grumbling was for form's sake rather than genuine, and then grinned at him. "Hey, it's just a public service." He aimed an elbow for Yuuta's ribs. "Someone's gotta remind you how the folks you stomp into the tennis court feel."

Yuuta elbowed him back. "Oh, it that what this is? I thought you just liked getting to do that little victory dance of yours."

"Victory dance?" That called for another elbowing, this one serious. "I do no such thing."

"The hell you say." Yuuta grinned. "You _totally_ have a victory dance. Goes like this." He shimmied in his seat, wiggling his hips. "See? You do it every time."

"I do not!" Koujirou protested, outraged. "That's not even a victory dance! You didn't even get up!"

Yuuta was laughing now. "It's a _lazy_ victory dance. And I swear, you do it every time."

"I do no such thing! You take that back."

"Can't," Yuuta told him, "it's the truth." He looked entirely too pleased with himself, which was just not cool.

"Victory dance my ass." Koujirou put his controller down.

Yuuta squawked as Koujirou knocked him over, and they went sliding off the couch. Koujirou sprawled over him and used his advantage to run his fingers up Yuuta's sides, seeking his ribs--huh, looked like Yuupyon was still ticklish there after all. Yuuta yelped with laughter. "Not fair!"

"What was that about a victory dance?" Koujirou asked, tickling him without mercy. "You sure you don't wanna retract that?"

"Death before dishonor!" Yuuta gasped, between snorts of laughter, and squirmed beneath him, trying to escape.

Koujirou realized that he may have made a tactical error about half a second too late, when his hormones sat up and took notice of the lean body stretched against him, rubbing in all the right places. "Shit, he said, when Yuuta went still under him. "Shit, I'm--"

Yuuta wriggled under him again; if he was trying to get _away_, he was doing it all wrong. "Huh," he said, breathless from laughing. "Guess I wasn't imagining things after all."

"Yuuta, I'm sorry." He tried to push himself away, give Yuuta some room, geez, only to realize that there was a pair of hands clamped tight on his shoulders, holding him in place.

"Shut up, Sae." Yuuta's voice was soft. "Freak out on me later." One of those hands slide up and curled around his nape, and drew him down. Yuuta's mouth met his halfway, open and eager.

Clearly he'd slipped sideways into some bizarre alternate dimension. "But you're straight," Koujirou breathed, dazed, when Yuuta finally let him up for air. "You like girls. Shuusuke said--"

"Was that what was stopping you?" Yuuta laughed softly, although he looked a little rueful. "Oh, man, Sae. Since when has Aniki _ever_ been the expert on what's going on inside my head?"

...okay, so that was a good point. Koujirou tried again. "But he said you'd had girlfriends..."

"Yup. Boyfriends, too." Yuuta's thumb was rubbing over the nape of his neck, slow and distracting. "I just don't tend to mention them to my family, that's all."

"Oh." That was... oh. Koujirou cleared his throat. "So, you're not picky, huh?"

Yuuta laughed again. "No, I'm plenty picky," he murmured. "Just not the way you're thinking." His hand turned heavy again, coaxing him down, and Koujirou bent his head to kiss Yuuta again.

Yuuta answered his kiss, open and hot, and Koujirou couldn't bring himself to care whether this was bizarro-world or not. All that really mattered was this moment, with Yuuta under him, hands moving over his back, mouth against his, urgent and wanting.

Yuuta moved under him again, a long, slow writhing motion that rolled their hips together and made Koujirou see stars for a moment, and ended with Yuuta's legs tangled with his. "God," Koujirou breathed, and since his hands were there anyway, he flattened them against Yuuta's ribs, stroking down his sides, firm and slow.

"Mmm, yeah." Yuuta stretched into his hands, mouth curving into a satisfied smile. "Much better than the tickling." One of his hands traveled down Koujirou's back, and the other tangled in his hair. Yuuta tugged on it, gentle. "C'mon, kiss me again."

"Are you always this demanding?" Koujirou traced his lips along Yuuta's jaw, breathing in the smell of him: sweat and tennis courts, soap underneath, maybe even a touch of cologne. He kissed the corner of Yuuta's jaw, just under his ear, and heard Yuuta's breath hitch.

"Pretty much." The hand that had been sliding down his back reached his waist and kept going, sliding into his back pocket and curving there, pushing down as he rolled his hips up against Koujirou's. The heat of it went flashing up Koujirou's spine, and he groaned against Yuuta's throat. Yuuta groaned too, voice gone throaty. "I'm pretty pushy, actually," he added, after a moment.

"No, really?" Koujirou traced the tip of his tongue down a tendon that shifted as Yuuta swallowed, tasting the salt on Yuuta's skin. "Never would've guessed."

"Asshole." Yuuta quivered when Koujirou stroked his tongue against the hollow of his throat. "You got a bed big enough for both of us? I'm not doing this on your living room floor."

Okay, yeah, that was a pretty good thought. There wasn't any point in giving Shuusuke an eyeful whenever he came in, either. On the other hand... "But that means I'll have to move."

"Lazy." Yuuta plucked at his shoulders. "Seriously. You're not getting into my pants if it means I'm getting rug burn."

Koujirou laughed, couldn't really help himself, and got one last nuzzle in before he untangled himself from Yuuta. "Can't have that," he said, either to the rug burn or to the other.

He'd meant to get up and offer Yuuta a hand up after him, but Yuuta practically bounced to his feet and wound his arms around Koujirou. He kissed Koujirou again, slow and hungry.

"What was that for?" Koujirou asked him, dazed all over again.

Yuuta grinned. "Incentive." He stepped back and gestured at the doors to their tiny cupboard bedrooms. "Which one of these is yours?"

"One on the left," Koujirou croaked, because Yuuta was playing with the hem of his shirt as he backed up.

"Mm. Thanks." Yuuta skimmed the shirt off, and another step took him to Koujirou's door. He grinned, cocky, like he knew that the sight of muscles Koujirou had been glimpsing flashes of for the past few months had made his mouth run dry. "You coming?"

Koujirou gathered enough presence of mind to retort, "I hope so," and prowl after him. Yuuta laughed and got the door open just in time for Koujirou to crowd him inside and press him up against the desk as he fumbled the door shut behind them. Yuuta's skin was warm under his hands, and his eyes gleamed in the faint light that came in from the street lights outside Koujirou's window.

Yuuta sighed and arched into Koujirou's hands as Koujirou explored the definition of his muscles, solid biceps and pectorals, hard under smooth skin. "I said your bed," he murmured in the dimness. "Not your desk." He didn't seem too exercised about moving yet, though, not when there were calloused fingers playing with Koujirou's hair.

"Picky," Koujirou muttered, and tasted Yuuta's throat again.

Yuuta laughed. "I told you I was." His hands slid down Koujirou's chest, undoing buttons as they went. "Seriously, I don't know what I'm sitting on, but it's not comfortable." He pushed Koujirou's shirt down his shoulders and spread his fingers against Koujirou's chest, pushing him back.

Koujirou went, a trifle unwilling to let go of Yuuta, even for a little bit, but Yuuta rewarded him for it. There was the sound of Yuuta scuffling for something in the dark, followed by the sudden brilliance of the desk lamp coming on, shade knocked askew from where Yuuta had been leaning against it. The bulb painted Yuuta's skin creamy gold where his summer tan hadn't burned it dark. Yuuta stretched, grinning, when he saw that he had Koujirou's attention, muscles playing under his skin.

Koujirou shrugged the rest of the way out of his shirt and started to reach for Yuuta again, desk be damned. Yuuta side-stepped him. "I thought I was supposed to be the impatient one."

"You make me forget how to be patient," Koujirou said, softly.

That startled a smile out of Yuuta, one that was fleeting and practically shy. "Huh." He ducked his head. "How about that?" When Yuuta looked up again, his grin was back. "So if I do this, what happens?"

_This_ was undoing his jeans and pushing them down, stepping out of them and his underwear and kicking off his socks to stand naked and gorgeous and smirking at Koujirou.

Koujirou was pretty sure he said something, and was much less certain that it was intelligible as any human language. Then again, he'd like anyone to be coherent under similar circumstances.

Yuuta's grin went that much wider. "So, you just planning on window-shopping, or what?"

"What," Koujirou said, hoarse even in his own ears. "Definitely planning on _what_." He'd never peeled out of his clothes so fast in his life. This time, when he moved to join Yuuta, Yuuta didn't try to escape.

Instead he made a sound that was deeply satisfied, and let Koujirou catch him close. Yuuta fitted himself against Koujirou, warm and bare. "Mmm... mmm, yeah." He arched against Koujirou, rubbing against him, shameless. The sounds Koujirou made as pleasure skittered up his spine matched the ones Yuuta made as Koujirou tumbled him the rest of the way down to his bed.

"Seriously, do you know how hot you are?" Koujirou asked, struck breathless all over again by the way Yuuta spread himself out against the sheets, lean and lazy. Koujirou's hands were stroking over the long lines of him, almost without permission, mapping out the texture of him, the hardness of his chest and the ridges of his stomach muscles, which shifted under his palm as Yuuta laughed.

"How hot _I_ am?" Yuuta grinned at him, eyes bright. "Sae, have you looked in the mirror lately?" His laughter changed into a gasp as Koujirou slid his hand lower, curling it around his cock. "Oh--oh, fuck, Sae..."

Koujirou stroked him slowly, fist moving with the beat of Yuuta's hips, for the way the deliberate touch swept Yuuta's face clean and bright. Yuuta gave himself to his pleasure as completely as he did everything else, moaning open and wordless, hands clenching in the sheets as Koujirou touched him. Koujirou let his fingers glide over the shaft of Yuuta's cock, circling his thumb over the head and rubbing the spot underneath, guided by the way Yuuta's breath hitched and stuttered and by what made him moan and arch and tense, until Yuuta shuddered, voice gone taut, and his hips bucked as he came. He rocked into Koujirou's fist, moaning openly, and Koujirou stroked him until Yuuta subsided against the sheets, gasping and limp.

It wasn't really a big bed, but Koujirou tucked himself against Yuuta's side as best as he could manage, drinking in the way Yuuta drifted in the aftermath of his pleasure, eyes hazy and half-lidded. This in itself would have been enough, but Yuuta stirred himself again, after a few minutes. "God," he said, husky, and twisted himself around, slow and languorous, to kiss Koujirou again. His mouth was slower now, without the edge of hunger it'd had before. "God, I should have thrown myself at you _weeks_ ago."

"Wish you would've," Koujirou agreed, and allowed Yuuta's wrigglings to maneuver him over, onto his back, with Yuuta draped over him.

"You could've thrown yourself at me," Yuuta noted, between one casual kiss and the next.

"I don't hit on straight guys... ah..." Koujirou sighed as Yuuta rocked their hips together, the slow grind of it sending heat climbing his spine. "Oh... Yuuta..."

"I got you." Yuuta tipped his head and ran his mouth down the side of Koujirou's throat. "Seriously, you just thought I was too straight to deal with being hit on?"

"Nn..." Koujirou leaned his head back, shuddering at the flick of a hot tongue against his earlobe and the steady rock of Yuuta's hips against his. "Pretty much..."

"Hmph. Idiot."

He wanted to protest that, but it was too difficult to focus with the way Yuuta was doing his best to make Koujirou's brain melt with heat. He'd do that later, when there weren't strong hands sliding down his body, or a mouth on his throat, sucking hard enough to bruise, or hips driving against his, rocking him steadily higher, until the first long shudder of orgasm rolled through him and shook him apart.

When he scraped enough brain cells back together to be able to think, Yuuta was grinning at him, practically oozing smugness. "Okay, seriously, do you know hot _you_ are?" Yuuta asked.

And he didn't seem to mind when Koujirou laughed himself breathless, dislodging him in the process.

   
 

Yuuta didn't even mention going back to his dorm room, so they stayed like that, twined around each other and trading lazy kisses until they drifted off. Koujirou roused himself a little to turn off the lamp, and again when he heard the front door open and close for Shuusuke. He woke up a third time towards the middle of the night, to fingers that were stirring through his hair, and offered Yuuta a sleepy kiss that somehow turned heated. That kiss ended with Yuuta on his knees, both of them crying out as Koujirou fucked him deep and slow.

Koujirou would have felt guiltier, or at least embarrassed, about the fact that their noise must have disturbed Shuusuke, if it hadn't been for the fact that similar noises had woken him up, more than once.

What _was_ kind of embarrassing was leaving his room the next morning to face Shuusuke's faint smile at the kitchen table. "Morning," he muttered, a little sheepish. He shuffled around Shuusuke to get a cup of coffee.

"Good morning." Shuusuke's tone was bone-dry. He waited until Koujirou had a mouthful of coffee to say, "I trust you had a pleasant time last night?"

Koujirou wasn't sure which was more horrifying at that moment: Shuusuke's conspiratorial grin, the fact that his bedroom door had opened up just in time to let Yuuta catch that, or the fact that Yuuta's sleepy expression had turned into a positively wicked grin.

"'Pleasant' my ass," Yuuta said, going maniacally cheerful. "It was fucking fantastic, thanks. Is that coffee?"

And with that, he draped himself against Koujirou's side and stole his mug.

"Eh-heh," Koujirou said, to Shuusuke's frozen expression.

Before he could cobble anything more elegant together, Shuusuke rubbed his eyes. "Congratulations." He pushed away from the table. "I'm sure you'll be very happy. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go _bleach my brain_."

"Don't worry, Aniki." Yuuta was damn near chirping. "Next time I'll take him back to my dorm, since I don't have a roommate."

Shuusuke groaned. "Aniki doesn't want to know!" he pronounced, and fled to the bathroom.

Yuuta laughed and took another drink of Koujirou's coffee. "I win."

"I will never understand the two of you." Koujirou stole his coffee back, fully conscious that he was grinning like a moron over that casual 'next time' and the way Yuuta had insinuated himself against his side.

"You just need more practice." Yuuta tilted a smile at him. "We'll work on that."

Koujirou couldn't think of a thing wrong with that plan.

   
 

"So, uh." Koujirou hesitated until Shuusuke looked up from his book. "Um. Me and Yuuta. You aren't going to kill me in my sleep, are you?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Shuusuke snorted and looked back at his book. "I couldn't be happier." That seemed like it might be all he was going to say, until he looked up again and smiled. "Besides. Now Yuuta has one more reason to remember to come home between tournaments."

Koujirou gaped at him. "He--what?"

Shuusuke's smile was serene. "I would assume that he'll want regular conjugal visits, after all." He turned a page. "And I can stop insisting that Fumiko-chan go out with me every Sunday, which is nice. I was running out of ideas."

"You--" Koujirou fumbled for the appropriate words, and had to settle for lobbing one of the couch pillows at him. "You couldn't have _said_ something?"

Shuusuke's grin was very like his brother's, for just a moment. "And lose the fun of watching the two of you figuring things out for yourselves? Don't be silly." He paused. "Although I did think you might have invited him along on your birthday. That was half the point of dragging you out."

Koujirou glared at him. "You are such an asshole, you know that?"

Shuusuke's smile never wavered. "It worked, didn't it?"

"And what if it hadn't?" Koujirou demanded, considering pelting him with the other pillow.

"I was going to give you another week, actually." Shuusuke turned another page. "If you hadn't gotten on with it, I was going to lock both of you in a room and not let you out until you'd managed to figure yourselves out." He chuckled. "But you saved me the trouble, which I appreciate."

Koujirou dropped his head back and sighed. "Seriously. _Asshole_."

Shuusuke chuckled. "You're welcome."

And, really, there didn't seem to be anything he could think of to say to that.

   
 

_Epilogue, a few years later_

When Koujirou unlocked the door, there was an extra pair of battered sneakers lined up next to his house slippers, and someone in the kitchen, singing along with the radio, just a little off-key.

Koujirou grinned and kicked off his shoes, and padded deeper into the apartment. He caught Yuuta bent over, rummaging through the refrigerator, and wrapped his arms around him. Yuuta clearly hadn't heard him come in, because he jumped and swore. "Fuck! You scared the shit out of me, asshole."

"Mmm, yep." Koujirou nuzzled his nape. "You're home early. Thought you were going to be out till the end of the week."

"Got bored. I can train in Tokyo just as well as anywhere else." Yuuta closed the refrigerator door and turned himself around, sliding his arms around Koujirou's shoulders. "Except nowhere else is as scenic as Tokyo."

"Yeah?" Koujirou grinned and pressed Yuuta up against the counter to kiss him hello, deep and thorough. "Lucky for me you like Tokyo so much."

Yuuta rolled his eyes. "It's not Tokyo that I like, idiot," he muttered, as he slid his hands into Koujirou's back pockets and pulled him closer.

Koujirou grinned. "Yeah, I know." He rested his forehead against Yuuta's. "Welcome home, Yuupyon."

"Same to you." Yuuta's chuckle was rusty. "'s good to be home."

"Yeah," Koujirou said, "I couldn't agree more."

**end**


End file.
